


A New Sickness

by decaffienateddefendorduck



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 16:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11581605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decaffienateddefendorduck/pseuds/decaffienateddefendorduck
Summary: After "Son of a Gun" Episode 2.14Toby is sick and Happy takes care of him.





	A New Sickness

Toby is sleeping in a chair as Happy watches over him. Having just admitted to Ralph that she is falling for Toby, she starts reflecting on their encounters of late and tries to figure out what led to these foreign feelings. Sure she’s had boyfriends, but she’s never felt like this for any one person before. Especially a person who annoys her so much.

Eventually Toby stirs, which takes Happy out of her musings.

“Come on, I’ll drive you home” She says in her no nonsense way.

“Happy? When did you guys get back?” Toby is obviously still out of it from the sleep, or his sickness, or both.

Since he wasn’t moving to get up, just repositioning himself to go back to sleep, Happy gets up and goes over to him. She takes one of his hands in hers and says gently, “Come on, Doc, you need to go home.”

“I don’t think I should drive anywhere right now. I’m pretty sure I took a lot of sleepy time medicine. Sleep is how you heal, you know. And I should know; I’m a doctor.” Toby’s speech continued getting slower and more slurred the longer he talked. As he finished, he was almost back to sleep.

“I know you can’t drive, that’s why I’m taking you home. Your sleep will be better if you do it in your bed.” Happy started grabbing at his arms and trying to pull him up. 

“Ha ha, you said ‘do it’.” Toby made the juvenile joke as he at first resisted her attempts to get him to stand, but when she didn’t stop he let himself get dragged upward.

Ignoring his usual but still asinine comments, Happy helped Toby outside awkwardly and over to her truck. His six foot frame was stumbling and wrapped in a blanket. Happy’s tiny frame was completely engulfed by him, but her strength and determination continually moved them forward.

Once at the truck, Happy got the passenger side open and helped Toby in, he slumped down and fell asleep instantly so Happy had to fasten his seat belt for him. She was starting to feel a little like his mother, but she discovered that she didn’t mind. She did mind a little that he had wormed his way into her good graces, but that wasn’t even as troubling to her as how she would get Toby up the stairs, into his apartment, and into bed so he could start to get better from this cold, or ‘influenza’ as he was calling it.

She drove them to his place and then started the arduous task of getting a very asleep Toby out of her truck, across the parking lot, and upstairs. She had never before wished more that she was physically bigger than she was at this moment. Struggling, she managed to make it to the stairs supporting Toby all the way, but she knew she would not be able to propel Toby up them, so she set about trying to wake him up.

“Toby. Toby, wake up. I can’t get you up the stairs by myself, wake up!”

Her gentle shakes weren’t doing anything so she started hitting him a little harder. Still not receiving a response, she thought maybe some tenderness would work, better than violence, perhaps. He was surely changing her, who was this girl who resorted to gentleness instead of violence? She sat Toby on the stairs and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him gently on the cheek she tried again.

“Toby, wake up, just for a minute. Please Doc.”

She kissed him again, aiming for his check, but this time she found him awake, and turning his head to capture her lips with his. She shoved him backward saying, “You jerk; now I’m going to get sick!”

Toby just smiled and looked around to get his bearings. When he recognized his complex, he stood up shakily. “Don’t worry; I’ll take care of you. I’m a doctor.” He said this with a little grin on his face as he started climbing the stairs.

Happy followed after him, angry that he didn’t care about getting her sick, but also glad that he was going up the stairs by himself. Once at his door, Toby started looking for his keys and when Happy caught up he had ascertained that he was not in possession of any keys.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” Happy said as she bent over to pick his lock. She was into his apartment quickly, and then she reached back and grabbed him to keep him from falling asleep on the porch.

“Would you like to take a bath before you go back to sleep? Do you have any soreness?” Happy asked as she propelled him toward the back of the apartment.

Toby looked like he couldn’t believe his luck when she started again. “No, I’m not taking a bath with you, just you in the warm bath, me making you tea in the kitchen, far away from the bathroom.”

Toby looked down at her clearly crestfallen and then replied. “No bath. Tea sounds nice, though. Thank you my little pumpkin.”

“Don’t call me that. Can you get ready for bed by yourself, or do you need help?”

“I needed help taking a bath. I can get into bed on my own.” Toby mumbled as he walked into the bedroom and for the first time ever, closed the door on Happy.

Happy hoped this was just the sickness making Toby so difficult. Or she supposed it could be the disappointment of not getting to see her naked again, though she didn't have any say in the matter the first time that happened. She did begin to wonder if, when he wasn’t sick, he covered up a lot of how he really felt to go out of his way to be over-the-top nice to her, because he wanted to be with her so badly. Thinking about him doing that made her fall a little bit more in love with him. 

Having finished making his favorite tea, Happy walked back to his bedroom, knocked and went right in. She wasn’t sure if he would be asleep again already, so she didn’t wait for a reply. She was not expecting a half-naked Toby stumbling around, trying to get dressed in his haze of sickness and cold medicine.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “You wait for a response before you enter a room. I’m not even dressed!”

“I’ve seen you in less, remember? Come here, I’ll help you. Why are you putting jeans on?” she asked with a little laugh.

At Happy’s question, Toby looked down and realized what he had been doing, and that he did indeed need her help. Happy sat Toby on the edge of the bed and got some pajamas out for him. She put them on his legs and then helped him stand so he could pull them the rest of the way up. She then put a shirt over his head and guided his arms through before pulling it the rest of the way down for him. Having successfully dressed Toby; she helped him move to the top of the bed, sitting him up against the headboard and handing him his tea, then pulling the covers up around him.

“I’m worthless. I can’t believe you had to dress me. It’s not as fun as when you undress me.” He attempt at humor fell a little flat with his eyes drooping closed again.

“Shut up and drink this so you can get the healing sleep you so badly need. And I’ve never done that. You’re really out of it tonight, Doc.”

“You undress me with your eyes all the time, you just think I don’t see it.” He noticed her not moving toward the other side of the bed and asked, “aren’t you staying? I sleep better when you’re here.” Suddenly Toby was wide awake, fearful that he would be left alone in such a vulnerable state. His tone was beginning to get a little whiny.

“I’ll stay, but not in here. I really don’t want to catch whatever this is, didn’t you call it ‘cooties’ before? But I’ll be here, if you need me.”

Toby tried to pout, but since he had finished his tea, Happy was moving toward him, taking his cup, and helping him to settle down in the bed. She made sure he was warm enough, and bent down to place a kiss on his forehead, something he often did to her, but she had never done to anyone before. When she pulled back to say good night, she saw such a look of joy in Toby’s very sleepy eyes. After taking care of him all evening, she felt very close to him. She didn’t want to go sleep on the couch, but then Toby sneezed hugely, breaking the moment. Happy jumped back, handed him some tissues, and then turned to leave the room. When she got to the door she looked back at him.

“Do you need anything else? She asked this with her hand on the light switch.

“Only you,” Toby said as he closed his eyes.

Smiling, Happy turned off the light, but didn’t close the door. Having never taken care of anyone when they were sick before, she was going mainly on the things she wished someone had done for her when she was sick. She was pretty sure this would be a restless night for them both, but she was also kind of looking forward to it. He was just so helpless.

“Just call if you need anything,” Happy whispered before turning to leave the room. Toby’s breathing pattern had already become his normal sleeping sounds that Happy had grown so accustomed to in the past couple of weeks. She stopped at the hall closet where she knew Toby kept an extra pillow and blanket and made herself a bed on the couch before turning out all the lights and locking the door.

Then she realized that she didn’t bring herself any clothes. She had the ones from the mission that Scorpion minus Toby just finished, but nothing clean. She snuck back into Toby’s room to get a shirt to sleep in and then went into the bathroom to change and wash her face. She looked in on Toby once more before settling herself down on the couch, trying to get a little sleep.

Several times during the night when Toby coughed or snored loudly, Happy was startled awake, but Toby’s sleeping sounds never wavered, so she was able to return to sleep each time.

In the morning when Toby woke up he felt much better. He didn’t exactly remember coming home or getting into the pajamas he was wearing, but he did notice the lack of Happy in his bed. Once he got into the bathroom he saw Happy’s things piled on the counter and remembered her struggling to get him here. Smiling, he showered and dressed, then went to look for her. When he found her on the couch, he was glad that she was still there, but confused as to why she was sleeping out there. He went into the kitchen, trying not to wake her. If she had put up with sick Toby, she probably needed some rest. After starting some water for tea, he peeked out of the kitchen at her. She was gone form the couch, and he could hear bathroom noises, so he started looking for breakfast.

“What are you doing up?” Happy asked as she made her way into the kitchen a few minutes later. She was dressed in yesterday’s clothes and didn’t look too happy about it. “Tea? I’m not sick.”

“I figured you may have been in the blast zone, so better safe than sorry? Hey, did you actually take care of me last night?” He asked this in such a way as to suggest that it ‘meant’ something. “And how did I get into those pajamas? I haven’t worn them in years. I don’t remember most of what happened last night.” 

“It would have been a crime against humanity to let you drive yourself home. How much medicine did you take, anyway?”

“No idea. Probably more than the recommended dosage, but as a genius doctor I knew the risk, and now since I feel so much better, I must have been right. Again. Why did you sleep on the couch? Was I inappropriate? I only have vague recollections, similar to a weekend I once spent in Tijuana.”

“You’re always inappropriate, but nothing out of the ordinary last night. I am not interested in going through whatever you lived through, in Tijuana or during this cold. So I slept out here.”

“You stayed. You helped me. You know, Happy, I think I’m growing on you.” As he said this he was moving more and more into her space, pushing her back into the wall. When he finished talking he was face to face with her, staring down at her obvious discomfort.

“Why this constant need to quantify everything. Yeah, yeah, genius, I know.” She pushed past him and started looking for her things. “I’m going home to shower and find clothes, I’m out at work. I’ll see you there.” And with that she left.

Toby let her go, knowing that a lot of this was new for her, and also knowing that if he pushed her after what she must have gone through to get him home and in bed; he would end up in pain and alone. So he got ready for work and ate breakfast alone.  
\--------------  
When Toby got to work, Paige was already there with Ralph, who was working with Walter before he had to go to school. On hearing Toby enter, Ralph looked up, smiled a knowing smile at Toby, and then went back to work. Toby was unsure about the look, but went to over to the child genius and ruffled his hair.

“Hey, thanks for babysitting me yesterday while the team was out. You were a superb sitter. I’m thinking of hiring you again.”

“It was nothing; you were such a baby. And I was compensated.” Ralph answered. 

Toby gave Ralph a confused look as Happy walked into the room. She was looking at Ralph with a warning look, and Toby started to put some of the pieces together looking back and forth between them. He decided to follow Happy instead of interrogating the child; she started walking faster when she realized that he was behind her. 

“You’ll have to walk much faster than that to get away from me,” Toby called. “I think I’ve just figured something out and I need you to walk me through the engineering.”

“I don’t know what you're talking about; I need to get to work.” Happy called behind her, still trying to elude the shrink. 

Once she reached her work space, Happy didn’t have anywhere else to go, so she picked up the loudest piece of machinery she could readily reach and started it just as Toby caught up with her and started to get close to her again, like he had in his kitchen that morning. He was trying to talk to her, but she obviously couldn't hear him over the noise. He looked at her trying to avoid him while being right in front of him, and after a short staring contest, he turned to leave. Once he was back at his deck, Happy stopped the noise and set about collecting the supplies she needed for the day.

Toby started piecing together the puzzle that was Happy Quinn. The previous day, Ralph brought him his favorite tea, soup and cartoon while he was watching him (which one was doing the watching was debatable). Then, when he woke up from a nap, Happy was the only one there watching him, when Paige was naturally the mother of the group. Sure, they had been spending a lot of time with each other, but Happy was still distant. She was telling him more, but as he was the big talker out of the two of them, mostly he talked and she put up with the noise. But after getting him home, she stayed to make sure he was all right. He was beginning to think that she was beginning to care about him. He could definitely work with that.

Throughout the day Happy would glance a little guiltily over at Toby and Toby would look at her with a question in his eyes, but they didn’t talk for the rest of the day. Toby left work before Happy, barely glancing at her before he left. She didn’t mind because they were trying to keep the rest of the team out of their personal lives; whatever this part of their personal lives was evolving into, Happy wasn’t quite sure. Once she reached a stopping point, she checked her phone for an indication of where Toby wanted to meet tonight, and was just a little surprised that he hadn’t texted her. She sent him a quick, “Want to hang out?” message and then packed up her stuff and headed out. Usually Toby answered her very quickly, but her phone didn’t buzz the whole way back to her apartment. Once there, she checked her phone and after getting a change of clothes, she called him.

“Yeah?” Toby answered.

“Toby? It’s Happy. Are you still feeling better?” she asked.

“Happy, how are you? I feel like I haven’t seen you all day. Oh, that’s because I haven’t talked to you since you bolted out of my apartment this morning.”

“I told you I needed to change for work.” She was starting to get angry with him; he was usually more anxious to see her then he was acting right now.

“Right, right. So, what’s up?” He was going to make her say that she wanted to be with him. Especially now that he knew she wanted to, since she took such good care of him the previous evening, even bribing a kid to get him his favorite things.

“I just wanted to make sure you were feeling okay. And see what you are doing tonight.” She was mad at him, but also wanted to be where he was. 

“I’m feeling fine, thanks for asking. I was thinking I needed a low key night, since I am still recuperating from my illness.” Toby continued to come across as being completely unaware of why she was calling.

“Do you want company? Your tea is almost gone, do you need me to bring you some more?” She asked, though she was starting to get a little hesitant. Why wasn’t he doing what he normally did; asking her to come over or suggesting things they could do?

“I got some more tea on my way home, but thanks for being so concerned with my welfare. If I was a brilliant doctor, I might think that you care about me. Oh, wait.”

“Of course I care about you. This is stupid, I’m coming over.” And with that Happy hung up and headed over to Toby’s apartment.

Toby just started to laugh, he hadn’t needed to ask her or hint at an activity or beg her to come and be with him; she was coming without any provocation from him. He was beginning to think that they were in a real relationship. He wondered if Happy knew that.

When Toby opened the door after she knocked, he just stood there smiling down at a very confused Happy. 

“What?” she asked as she pushed past him. She had picked up dinner on the way there, and was putting it out on the coffee table while Toby closed the door and followed her.

“You like me.” He gloated as he grabbed his dinner and flopped down on the couch. “You even brought me dinner, and I didn’t ask, beg, or threaten personal bodily harm if I had to spend the evening alone, all of which you’ve made me do in the past.”

“This is news to you? I have been spending an inordinate amount of time with you ever since you saved my life in that blizzard, and you’re just now figuring out that it means I 'like' you? I thought you were a brilliant psychiatrist.” Happy spat this back so nonchalantly that Toby was caught off guard for a minute.

“You’re admitting it to me? I thought it would be a huge fight to get you to even look at me again after I called you out on your feelings.”

Having settled on the couch with her own food, Happy simply replied, “I’m not a child, Toby.”

“So, you fighting me on quantifying this” he gestured between the two of them “just this morning, that was my imagination? Now we’re boyfriend and girlfriend and you just skipped over verbalizing that step to me?”

“I’m not that talkative, you know that. Eat, dummy.” Happy was almost through her food and was starting to look around for Toby’s remote. Toby on the other hand was completely floored. He had just referred to them as boyfriend and girlfriend and she didn’t even bat an eye. He thought he would have more of a fight on this particular topic, but here she was, admitting that she was in a relationship with him, and not fighting at all.

He decided to see how far he could push his luck. “How long have we been together? I feel like I don’t even know my own anniversary. How long have I had a girlfriend?” He knew he was really pushing this, but she asked for it, by not taking the bait the first time he said ‘boyfriend” and was referring to himself being attached to her.

“How should I know? I don’t keep track of the girly details. That’s your department.” She finally located the remote and was about to get up to get it. What it was doing on the other side of the door, she did not know.

“And now my girlfriend is calling me the girl in our relationship. That’s not emasculating at all.” Now Toby was just trying to see how long he could go using these trigger words before Happy blew up at him.

“If the high-heeled pump fits, wear it.” Happy giggled. “Why is the remote over there?”

“I was gesticulating wildly while watching the game. What? I do that. And apparently you begin relationships without informing the other party.” Happy’s question brought Toby out of his momentary paralysis and he began eating again. He was starting to assume that he should just go along with this, since Happy was acting as if it was no big deal.

Happy retrieved the remote and turned on the TV, choosing something with robot wars. She could watch this as animatedly as Toby watched sports he had money on. After they both finished eating, Toby cleaned up and sat down in the kitchen once it was clean to think about the new development, that he was currently in a relationship with Happy Quinn. Then he remembered that he had been sick, so he went into the bedroom and started striping the sheets off the bed to do some laundry. That’s when he really started to feel like the girl in this relationship, but he continued gathering dirty clothes and carried them all out to the laundry room. Happy barely looked up as he left, but when he came back, she grabbed him to pull him back onto the couch with her.

“I came to spend time with you, why are you doing chores?” she asked.

“I was sick, so I’m washing my sheets.” He didn’t make a move to get out of the awkward position he landed in.

“That’s nice of you,” she said hesitantly. “Wait, are you doing that for you or for me?”

“I'm doing it because of my training as a doctor. And for me; so I don’t have to sleep in sick sheets. And for you so you don’t get what I just had.”

“Even though you kissed me last night while you were sick?” Happy interrupted.

Toby bolted up from his slouch. “What? I what? I wouldn’t do that—oh, I took a lot of medicine.” Toby slapped his forehead, ashamed that he would be so reckless with Happy and collapsed back onto the couch.

“Yes you did and yes you did. I don’t think you should be in charge of your own medicine when you’re the one who is sick.” Happy said, purposely not looking at him.

“Maybe.” Toby agreed. They sat in silence with only the TV for noise.

Seeing that Toby was upset at himself on her behalf, Happy scooted closer to him and pulled his arm around her. “I missed being close to you while you were sick.” She admitted this in a low voice, kind of hoping he wouldn’t hear her, but of course, he did.

“You missed this?” he asked, scooting closer to her, too, and tightening the hold on her that she instigated.

“Shut up.”

He did, but also wrapped his other arm around her and squeezed her tightly. “I missed this, too.” He added quietly. Just as she was turning toward him, his phone alarm went off. “Laundry.” He said and got up. Happy watched him leave, and started to think about all the situations that they had been in that brought her here tonight, with Toby. She knew that he was trying to get her to fight with him about labeling their relationship, but she didn’t have it in her, she wanted to be here with him. When he came back in after moving the laundry from the washer into the dryer, he sat back down beside her.

“You set an alarm for your laundry?” Happy asked. “I’ve never thought to do that.”

“I always forget it and then have to wash it again. Pushy people who take other people’s laundry out of the machines should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” Toby said self-righteously.

“People should go to jail for throwing your clothes on the floor when you don’t return to get them after how long? A day, a week?" Toby looked at the floor guiltily, so Happy continued. "You have not left your clothes in the laundry room for a week before, have you?” Happy was definitely surprised by his lack of neighborliness.

“I get sidetracked. I’m a genius; I don’t focus on the mundane for long.” 

Happy just shook her head at him. “Are any of my clothes in there? Are they going to get dumped on the floor?

“I set another timer. Doing it late also helps. Not as many people can stay up as late as we can,” he added suggestively.

“Now you’re sounding like you did last night. Like I said this morning; always inappropriate.” Happy tried to turn her attention back to the TV, but Toby had other ideas.

He started in with, “I was thinking we should set our anniversary as January 4th, since that’s when we made it back alive from Antarctica and you started spending every night with me. Or it could be yesterday, the day you took care of me. Or today, since we’re finally talking about being in a relationship.”

“I don’t do this, it’s too girl-friend-y for me. Are you trying to get me mad at you? We’re done with this topic.” Happy was still trying to focus on the TV, but Toby was starting to wrap his arms around her and caress her face, and run his hands through her hair. “Stop touching me. Isn’t the dryer done yet?” she asked.

“There’s my Happy,” Toby said as he sat up and moved a little away from her. He couldn’t resist bending over and placing a kiss on her forehead. As he did, a memory came back to him, so he asked, “Did you do this last night? Kiss me after you tucked me in?”

“Yeah, so what if I did?” Happy was a little annoyed by the topic of conversation, but also by the fact that Toby moved away from her. She only wanted him to stop petting her.

“It was very sweet. You don’t usually do sweet things. It’s nice to know that you can.” Toby had one of his patented dreamy looks on as he looked at her.

“You mean could, past tense jackass.”

Toby sat up again, a little shocked by this change. “Never again, okay. I guess I’ll go and check on the laundry.”

Happy wasn’t sure why she always did this, but he just pushed her too far. Sometimes Toby could be so annoying. She should just go home. She’s a little unsure about why she came over at all, usually Toby asks and he didn’t, so she didn’t have to come here. But she had, because it was becoming a habit, because she was growing closer to him. Because she was his girlfriend? She realized that she didn’t want to admit that because of how happy it would make Toby, but she did want to admit it because of how happy it would make her. She sat there pondering the situation for a little while longer. Toby came back in and went straight to his bedroom with all of the clean laundry. 

Happy got up and followed him, asking, “Do you want help?”

He didn’t answer her, but didn’t fight her taking one side of a sheet and going to the other side of the bed. They made the bed together, without much talking and then Happy started pulling some of her own clothes out of Toby’s basket. “How do I leave so many clothes here?” She asked, not expecting an answer.

“You are here a lot. When we’re in a hurry in the morning you don’t always pick up your clothes from the bathroom, so I add them to my dirty clothes. I don’t mind.” Toby added when she looked up at him embarrassed. 

Toby folded and put away all of his clothes and then looked down at Happy, who was just finishing with her clothes. She noticed his lack of movement and looked to see what was going on. 

“Would you like a drawer?” he asked, hesitantly.

“Ok, this is the kind of situation I don’t know how to handle. If I say ‘no’ it will hurt your feelings, but I don’t need to keep things here. If I say ‘yes’ you’ll read some meaning into that and I’m not sure what it will do to us, though it would be nice to have somethings here, last night I had to sleep in one of your shirts.”

“I don’t mind that, either.” Toby added an eyebrow raise to his statement. “How about this, I’ll work on making some room for you and then if you want it you can use it, we don’t have to talk about it.” Toby started to leave the room, but Happy tackled him and they landed on the bed. 

“Right answer,” she said and proceeded to kiss him.


End file.
